"Whatever else the Gospels are, they are not legends. I have read a great deal of legend and I am quite clear that they are not the same sort of thing. They are not artistic enough to be legends… Most of the life of Jesus is totally unknown to us, as is the life of anyone else who lived at that time, and no people building up a legend would allow that to be so." —C.S. Lewis, "What Are We to Make of Jesus Christ?" (1950)

For Reflection/Discussion: The resurrection of Jesus took place in the first century AD. How could the resurrection of one person (Jesus) that long ago have any bearing on our lives today? What difference, if any, does Jesus' resurrection make to you personally? What difference would it make if Jesus had never risen from the grave? What evidence or historical-legal proof is there that the resurrection actually took place?

For Reflection/Discussion: Why do we keep repeating the same mistakes, committing the same sins, have such a difficult time breaking bad habits, and in general staying stuck emotionally and spiritually? In several of his letters Paul reminds his audience that, apart from Christ, we are dead in our sin. What can a dead person do for themselves? What does this have to say about the source of our salvation? What part, if any, do we play in our salvation? What biblical passages can you point to that support your conclusion? What are your thoughts on Ravi Zacharias' statement that "Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people alive." Is this the way most people's understand Jesus' mission?

For Reflection/Discussion: What are some of the characteristics of people whom you most admire? What kind of person would you like to become? How would you like to be remembered by others? What difference does the power of God make in our becoming the people we would like and were meant to be? In 2 Corinthians 5.17 what is the sole condition that Paul identifies for us to become a new creation? What does Paul mean by that? What important lesson does Jesus teach in John 15 about the importance of staying truly connected with Jesus? Read Galatians 5.22-23. Is it possible to find the "love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" we are looking for apart from God?

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to…" (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 55-56)